What makes a perfect poached egg?

The perfect poached egg is a matter of taste - some of you will like ever so slighty runny poached eggs for dunking butter-soaked toast into, whilst others prefer a firmer, meatier variety of poached egg.

There are a variety of ways to poach an egg. This site lists the three most common ways and should give you plenty of options:

The easy poached eggs method involves using an egg poacher to create identical, consistent and light poached eggs every time. The least amount of effort is needed as you can just leave the eggs to get on with it without worrying. Very hard to get wrong!

Originally, when I set this site up, it was dedicated to the 'reliable' method; an egg poached just to the point where the white is no longer runny and the yolk is beginning to harden around the edges, encasing the lush, runny, flowing yolk ready for dipping toast into.

On balance, this poached egg method is perfect is for three very simple reasons: it’s easy, it can be tailored to your exact preference and there’s no messing about!

It assumes you are cooking poached egg on toast and uses the toaster as an egg timer. If it is poached egg on toast you are cooking then look no further. My method is efficiency at it's best!

The dressing up of your perfect poached egg is again up to you - plain old runny poached egg on toast with a healthy sprinkling of coarse black pepper and sea salt is perfect for some, whilst others prefer the buttery sensation of eggs benedict. Serve your poached egg with crispy smoked bacon, a doorstep of country grain bread spread generously with butter, all on a bed of rocket... mm, let’s stop there before I have to go and eat one!